Research in this lab investigates the cognitive and neural bases
of language, particularly syntax.  Projects fall into the following 
general areas:

	Normal Language Acquisition

	Abnormal Language Acquisition

	Adult Language Processing

	Functional Neuroimaging

1.  NORMAL LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.  The aims of this research are (1) to
delineate those aspects of language that are innate from those that
must be learned and (2) to investigate the nature of syntactic
representations in children and adults.  We are particularly
interested in the acquisition of functional categories as it relates
to the acquisition of syntax.  A number of techniques are used
including the analysis of spontaneous speech transcripts to determine
the order of acquisition of various syntactic and morphological
processes and the types of errors that children do and do not make in
spontaneous speech.  In addition, we use a variety of experimental
techniques to assess children's linguistic competence, including a
puppet-game technique which makes it possible to obtain grammaticality
judgments from pre-school age children.  Ongoing projects involve
investigations of diverse syntactic phenomena such questions, datives,
passives, do-support, auxiliaries, tense, agreement, and negation. 
Languages being studied include English, German, and Turkish.

2.  ABNORMAL LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.  The acquisition of language of
children with various developmental language disorders is compared
with language acquisition by normal children.  The aims of this
research are (1) to elucidate the nature of deficit(s) underlying
specific language impairment (SLI) and (2) to explore the extent to
which language and subcomponents of language are modular.  Ongoing
projects include:

	1)  Longitudinal study of language acquisition by children with
	SLI. This study is unusual for two reasons.  First, we are 
	collecting spontaneous speech data as well as elicited data and 
	standardized test data.  Second, half of the children in the study 
	were under 2.5 years when we began studying them.  Current
	projects using these data include:

		* The acquisition of case
		* The acquisition of tense and agreement
		* The acquisition of questions and auxiliaries
		* The acquisition of phonology
		* An investigation of syntactic and phonological tradeoffs
		
	2) The genetics of language and language disorders

		* Longitudinal twin study of 2 sets of SLI twins 
		* Meta-analyses of behavioral genetic language studies

	3) The linguistic abilities of children with isolated expressive
		disorders

3.  ADULT LANGUAGE PROCESSING.  These studies investigate the
cognitive bases of language processing.  Models of language processing
are tested using reaction time and accuracy data collected while
normal adults perform a variety of linguistic tasks.  We have recently
begun to compare processing of spoken sentences with the processing of
written sentences.  We have also begun investigating similarities and
differences in the detection of errors involving syntax (e.g., *Who do
you know the man that likes John), morphology (e.g., *She like Bill),
semantics (*The juice stained the rug that spilled the child), or the
lexicon (*The woman met the blicket).

4.  FUNCTIONAL NEUROIMAGING.  The aim of these studies is to
investigate the neural correlates of syntactic processing.  In
collaboration with investigators at other universities, positron
emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) technologies are used to determine which parts of the brain are
active when normal adults perform a variety of linguistic tasks.
For example, Stromswold, et al (1996) have found that the left pars opercularis
(part of Broca's area) is the only region significantly more active
when subjects read center-embedded sentences (e.g., The juice that the
child spilled stained the rug) than when subjects read right-branching
sentences (e.g., The child spilled the juice that stained the rug)